Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Good Humour

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Good Humour A forty-eight bar Reel for two couples in a longwise set, devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 5.

1- 4 First man and second lady change places giving right hand in passing, first man casts up behind second man to his original place whilst second lady casts off behind first lady to her original place. Meanwhile, first lady and second man set and change places giving right hand in passing.
5- 6 First and second couples dance right hands across in a wheel half way.
7- 8 First man and second lady set. Meanwhile, second man casts up to the top behind his partner and first lady casts off behind her partner.
9-10 Second man crosses over and casts into second place on the ladies' side, whilst first lady crosses over and casts up into first place on the men's side; at the same time first man and second lady turn one and a half times with the left hand to finish facing their own partners.
11-14 First and second couples dance a half reel of four.
15-16 First and second couples turn partner with the right hand three quarters round to finish with first couple on the ladies' side and second couple on the men's side with the ladies above their partners.
17-20 First and second couples join nearer hands with partner and advance and retire.
21-24 First couple dance a half figure of eight round second couple, crossing between second couple to commence.
25-28 First man and second lady face down with nearer hands joined, first lady and second man face up similarly and both couples advance and retire.
29-32 First man and second lady dance a half figure of eight round their partners, crossing down between them, first man casting up to his original place and second lady casting up to first place on the ladies' side.
33-36 First and second couples join nearer hands on the sides and advance and retire.
37-40 First and second men dance a half figure of eight round their partners, crossing between the ladies to commence; finish with second couple on own side in first place facing down the set and first couple in second place on own side facing up the set.
41-48 First and second couples dance rights and lefts, commencing by giving right hands on the sides of the set.

Repeat from second place.

(Dance crib reproduced from The Whetherly Book of Scottish Country Dances, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell)


Keith Rose's Crib Diagram


Published in The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 5, by John W Mitchell, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell. Instructions reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0).

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